First issued in August 1955, its rivals are Nakayoshi and Ciao.

It is one of the best-selling shōjo manga magazines, having sold over 590 million copies since 1978.

Often exceeding 400 pages, the issues are distributed with a sackful of goodies (furoku) ranging from small toys to colorful note pads themed around manga serialized in the magazine.

In some issues, readers can send in stamps for mail order gifts (zen-in).

The manga series from the magazine are later compiled and published in book form (tankōbon) under the Ribon Mascot Comics (RMC) imprint.